John Cota, the pilot of the container ship that spilled more than 50,000 gallons of fuel oil into San Francisco Bay last year, departs the federal courthouse after pleading not guilty to charges of criminal negligence and violating environmental laws, in San Francisco, California March 21, 2008. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith (UNITED STATES)

Photo: Robert Galbraith, Reuters

John Cota, the pilot of the container ship that spilled more than...

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The 900-foot Cosco Busan container ship struck a tower of the Bay Bridge's western span Nov. 7, 2007, spilling more than 50,000 gallons of oil into the bay.

Photo: Paul Chinn, SFC

The 900-foot Cosco Busan container ship struck a tower of the Bay...

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Looking south at the East side of Angel Island.
The Cosco Busan hit the Bay Bridge spilling 58,000 gallons of fuel.
The Bay is filled with the oil from Candelstick Point to the Marin County coast.
OIL_SPILL_0299_KR.jpg
Kurt Rogers / The Chronicle
Photo taken on 11/8/07, in San Francisco, CA, USA
Ran on: 11-09-2007
A surf scoter, covered in oil that spilled after a container ship hit the Bay Bridge, is tended by Meghan McNertney of Larkspur. Hundreds of birds coated in thick oil were injured or dead after the spill.
Ran on: 11-09-2007
A surf scoter, covered in oil that spilled after a container ship hit the Bay Bridge, is tended by Meghan McNertney of Larkspur. Hundreds of birds coated in thick oil were injured or dead after the spill.

Photo: Kurt Rogers, SFC

Looking south at the East side of Angel Island.
The Cosco Busan hit...

(02-13) 10:52 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Bay bar pilot who was in command of the Cosco Busan when it hit the Bay Bridge and spilled 53,000 gallons of oil is suing the U.S. Coast Guard to get his mariner's license back, saying the agency came up with a series of unjustified reasons for refusing to renew his credentials after the 2007 disaster.

John Cota, 65, of Petaluma was taking as many as 19 medications when the 900-foot container ship struck a tower of the Bay Bridge's western span Nov. 7, 2007. A federal investigation found that Cota had failed to disclose to the Coast Guard all his medical conditions.

His use of prescription drugs, the probe found, probably contributed to his "degraded cognitive performance" leading up to the crash.

The spill fouled beaches from the Marin Headlands to San Mateo County, killed nearly 7,000 birds and wiped out as much as 29 percent of the spawning herring that winter. Cota ultimately served 10 months in federal prison in a plea agreement for misdemeanor violations of the Clean Water Act.

Cota voluntarily surrendered his state-issued bar pilot's license in 2008 in the face of efforts to revoke it by the Board of Pilot Commissioners, the state agency that regulates boat traffic on San Francisco Bay. He had already surrendered his federally issued mariner officer license in December 2007.

Cota's suit, filed Friday in federal court in Oakland, says the Coast Guard tricked him into surrendering his credentials in a "sham" voluntary agreement, then found bogus reasons not to renew them. Cota passed post-accident medical examinations, the suit says, but Coast Guard officials then insisted he was not fit to pilot a boat because he was taking Provigil - a stimulant for his sleep apnea.

2006 grounding

The Coast Guard told Cota that the drug is not "acceptable for safety-sensitive positions." But the Air Force allows jet-fighter pilots to take it, and Cota suffered no impairment when he used it, the suit says.

In rejecting his effort to regain his credentials, the Coast Guard also cited Cota's failure to disclose that he had been using certain prescription drugs and that he had been reprimanded by the Board of Pilot Commissioners for grounding a ship in 2006 near Pittsburg, the lawsuit says.

In a National Transportation Safety Board hearing into the Cosco Busan accident, Dr. Robert Bourgeois, an expert on aviation and maritime physicals, said Cota had been taking a cocktail of drugs for sleep apnea, migraines and glaucoma, as well as for anxiety and depression.

"I wouldn't want anyone taking those medicines and having to make decisions" about piloting a ship on the bay, Bourgeois said. He said the antianxiety drug that Cota was taking - lorazepam, a generic form of Ativan - was barred for airline pilots.

The safety board faulted the Coast Guard's medical-screening process, and federal officials have since revamped it.

'He wants to be active'

Cota's lawyer, John Meadows, insisted that Cota was still capable of piloting a ship.

"If he wins, he would get his license back," Meadows said. "He wants to sail, and according to his license, he has a wide choice of positions. He wants to be active."

Meadows said heavy fog the morning of the Cosco Busan crash and communications breakdowns with the crew had been largely to blame for the disaster.

"It's never been proved" that the medications Cota was taking contributed to the accident, Meadows said. "He didn't have any of those drugs they are claiming he took in his system (and) he had a full night's sleep. There was nothing wrong."

He added that there had been "a lot of political pressure on the Coast Guard" to get Cota off the water.

A Coast Guard spokesman said Monday that the agency did not respond to pending litigation.